Grandparents Day Poem Activity | Write a Sense of Wonder Poem

Grandparents Day Poem Activity | Write a Sense of Wonder Poem

Great Grandparents and Grandchildren Together Activity

September celebrates Grandparents Day on the 11th this year. The following Grandparents Day poem activity contest is one of the many aging initiative projects encouraging older and younger generations to come together to share interests and experiences.

If a child is to keep alive his inborn sense of wonder, he needs the companionship of at least one adult who can share it, rediscovering with him the joy, excitement and mystery of the world we live in. ~ Rachel Carson

Grandparents Day Poem Activity

Grandparents Day Poem Activity, sponsored by the U.S. EPA, Generations United, the Dance Exchange, National Center for Creative Aging, and the Rachel Carson Council, Inc., held a poetry, essay, photo and dance contest.*

Entries were to be from a team of two or more persons, a young person and an older person. The creative work should express the “Sense of Wonder” that your team feels for the sea, the night sky, forests, birds, wildlife, and all that is beautiful to your eyes.

The purpose was for grandparents and grandchildren to share together their love of nature. As stated on the US EPA’s website: “When we teach our eyes and ears and senses to focus on the wonders of nature, we open ourselves to the wonders around us.”

If there is poetry in my book about the sea, it is not because I deliberately put it there, but because no one could write truthfully about the sea and leave out the poetry ~ Rachel Carson

Creative Grandparents Day Poem Activity Details

Contestants worked across generations to share through one of these distinct mediums their own interactions with and reflections on the wonders of nature. Dance video entries were not limited to the moving body. Captured movement and change visible in nature: birds landing, trees shaking in a storm, a river flowing…could also be used.

*Unfortunately, I just found this contest after it was too late for you to enter, while searching for Rachel Carson poems. She began writing when she was 10 years old. Even though it’s too late participate, you can click on the link below to view photos and videos, and also read the essays and poems submitted by mostly grandparents and grandchildren together.

For Your Grandparents Day Poem Activity…

This cross-generational poem activity, creating a poem celebrating the wonders of nature together, is a wonderful idea for a Grandparent’s Day activity that can be created while visiting together or through email, google docs and FaceTime, or good old fashioned mail.

Don’t forget to take pictures that visually express your poem or write a poem that reflects what your nature photos express to you.

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Jersey Shore Grandmother of 5 great kids, retired special ed high school teacher, married since 1972 to Poppy...loves spoiling the grands, crocheting for whomever I can and charities, reading, crafts, outdoors, blogging...and retirement.